On interest rates, once again Labor is in a half-negotiation, half-cage fight with the Greens

‘The differences between the RBA and the government are slight. But between Labor and the Greens they are more stark.’ Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Back when Jim Chalmers was negotiating with the Coalition to pass the government’s Reserve Bank of Australia reforms he offered a key concession.

Instead of proposing to abolish the power to overrule the RBA on the setting of interest rates, Labor was prepared instead to limit the power to “emergency circumstances and not just differences of opinion”.